Dedicated to producing powerful chamber music concerts in unique and intimate settings, Artistic Director and founding member of Midsummer’s Music James Berkenstock, with his wife Jean, established the Door County, Wisconsin summer concert series in 1991.

With an exciting career that has spanned decades, he is the former Principal Bassoonist with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he enjoyed a 48 year tenure, and with the Chicago Philharmonic, where he also served as President and continues as a member of the board.

Berkenstock has appeared as soloist with the Chicago Philharmonic, Concertante di Chicago, the Illinois Chamber Symphony, Symphony II, the Northern Illinois Philharmonic, and with the Grant Park Symphony. Additional orchestral roles include Principal Bassoon with the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra.

An active recording artist, he has over 300 national and international radio and television commercials to his credit. His discography includes recordings with the Chicago Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, University of Chicago’s Contemporary Chamber Players, and four releases with Midsummer’s Music on the Centaur and Solstice labels.

As an author, he co-wrote Joseph Haydn in Literature: A Bibliography, published by the Haydn Institute, Cologne, Germany. Berkenstock has served as a Professor of Music at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and is Professor Emeritus at Northern Illinois University. In 2002, he received the Teacher Recognition Award from the U.S. Department of Education. Berkenstock is a graduate of Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music and Northwestern University, where he earned a Ph.D. in Music History and Literature.  He studied bassoon with Wilbur Simpson and Willard Elliot, receiving additional training as a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.